Higher taxes for less traffic?

Higher taxes for less traffic?

Explorer file photo, Voters will get a chance to weigh in on the TIME Initiative in November. Supporters of the measure argue that the one-cent sales tax increase will fund much needed transportation projects.

Higher taxes for less traffic?

Explorer file photo, Voters will get a chance to weigh in on the TIME Initiative in November. Supporters of the measure argue that the one-cent sales tax increase will fund much needed transportation projects.

When voters go to the polls in November, they will choose more
than just the next president.

An initiative on the Arizona ballot aims to provide money for
the state’s highways and transportation projects through a one-cent
sales tax increase.

The Transportation Infrastructure Moving Arizona’s Economy
Initiative (or TIME) proposes to raise the sales tax from 5.6
percent to 6.6 percent to fund transportation improvements over the
next 30 years. It would amount to a 17.8 percent increase in the
state sales tax.

The tax hike would raise an estimated $42.6 billion by 2040 to
pay for projects, such as interstate highway expansion, rail
projects and bike paths.

“It’s not going to solve our problems, it’s just going to help
us stay up with the expected growth in this state,” TIME Initiative
Chairman J.D. Pruitt said.

Should the measure pass, the sales tax hike would go into effect
in 2010.

“If it doesn’t pass, you have to ask yourself when can you have
another initiative that might be able to get passed,” Pruitt said.
“Politically, we think you could be 6 or 8 years out before you can
get an initiative on a transportation bill through anything at the
Legislature.”

The TIME Initiative’s backers estimate that the projects would
add $14.8 billion to the Pima County economy and create 96,000 jobs
and add 200 miles of new or expanded roads over the next 30
years.

“Yes, it is a tax increase,” Pruitt said. “I don’t want to make
light of that if somebody’s unemployed or if somebody’s at the real
low end of the income. But we all throw away a lot of money just
getting a Starbucks. Look at how many people that are buying coffee
for three and a half bucks a glass.”

Construction companies and homebuilders back the initiative,
and, as of July 28, have helped raise more than $914,600 to push
for its passage, according to state campaign records.

Some environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, and
low-tax advocates oppose the initiative.

“It’s kind of a long-held Sierra Club policy that we think
growth should pay for itself,” said Sandy Bahr, director of the
group’s Grand Canyon Chapter.

Taxpayers would foot the bill for urban sprawl, Bahr said,
adding that more focus should go to alternative transportation
options.

“Considering where we are with transportation issues,
considering the price of gasoline and how far behind with mass
transit, including busses and rail, this really needed to be more
focused on that,” Bahr said.

Money generated by the tax increase would get divided among road
construction and mass transit projects.

“If you’re trying to solve the energy problem, there’s a host of
things to solve that,” Pruitt said, adding that roads and highways
alone will not alleviate Arizona’s transportation woes.

Of the $42.6 billion the initiative’s expected to raise, about
58 percent ($24.7 billion) would go toward highway projects. About
20 percent ($8.5 billion), will go to local projects, especially
those involving mass transit. About 18 percent ($7.7 billion) will
go to regional rail and transit projects. The remaining 4 percent
($1.7 billion) will be set aside for walkways and bike paths.

“Our populations are going to double rapidly, and the
infrastructure to support that growth is important,” said Oro
Valley Mayor Paul Loomis, who also chairs the Regional
Transportation Authority board.

In Oro Valley and Marana, the TIME Initiative would increase the
town’s sales taxes up to 9.1 percent each.

While taxes will be paid statewide, the money will be
distributed on a percentage basis to every county, which then will
determine how to spend it.

For example, of the $28.7 billion for highway projects, nearly
half will go to Maricopa County. Pima County stands to get 12
percent, and another 3 percent will go to a conservation fund.

The remaining 39 percent of the revenue will get divided between
the other 13 counties.

While the RTA manages the half-cent sales tax for road projects
passed by county voters in 2006, it likely will fall on the RTA’s
parent group, the Pima Association of Governments, to dole out TIME
money, according to Loomis.

The county has identified several projects it could pay for with
TIME money.

Projects in Oro Valley and Marana include improvements to
Tangerine Road, between I-10 and Oracle Road, and an expansion of
Oracle to six lanes north of Tangerine.

If the initiative were to pass, project planning would begin
immediately, Loomis said.

Another Northwest-area project could involve building a commuter
rail line from Tucson to Phoenix. The route likely would start in
Marana.

In all, Pima County would receive about $1.9 million for
project, according to the TIME Initiative’s backers.

The ‘megapolitan’ Sun Corridor

It’s easy to see why there’s such a push for more money for
highways and transportation.

Pinal County is one of the fastest growing in the nation. Pima
County’s population has crested the million mark, and the growth in
the Phoenix area has made boomtowns out of communities like
Surprise and Gilbert.

The new buzzword in growth and expansion is megapolitan.

The so-called Sun Corridor, stretching from Nogales, through
Tucson and Phoenix, up to Prescott, is poised to become one of the
top-20 megapolitan super-cities in the nation, comprising 80
percent of Arizona’s population.

A study released in May by Arizona State University’s Morrison
Institute for Public Policy outlines the implications of such rapid
growth.

“Few question that — without something soon — the Sun Corridor
is on a collision course with traffic congestion,” the ASU study
suggests.

More freight is moved along Interstate 10 between Tucson and
Phoenix than any other stretch of that interstate, according to the
study.

In 2040, when the TIME initiative would expire, Pima County’s
population may have reached 1.6 million, according to Dave Taylor,
a technical services coordinator with the Pima Association of
Governments.